Today's Stats

Although I've been running for close to 3 weeks now I am going to consider this coming week as the first week of training. This week I will start hill climbs, tempo runs, as well as Saturday long runs. I will also do 3 days a week of cross training which will most likely be walking. When Hunter can sit up on his own, I'll add a trailer to my bike and we will ride a few days a week. For now I'm pretty happy with our program.

Category	Walking
Location	Balboa
Event
Tags
Distance	4.27mi
Duration	1h 7m 23s
Start	9:31:30 AM PDT Mon, 19 Jul 10 show
Last Update	10:38:53 AM PDT Mon, 19 Jul 10 show
Performance
Max	6.20mph show
Max .25mi	Personal Best4.12mph / 3m 37s show
Max .5mi	Personal Best4.03mph / 7m 25s show
Max 1mi	Personal Best3.99mph / 15m 0s show
Max 3mi	Personal Best3.90mph / 46m 3s show
Max 1min	Personal Best4.37mph / 117.2m show
Max 5min	Personal Best4.08mph / 548.1m show
Max 10min	Personal Best4.00mph / 0.66mi show
Max 20min	Personal Best3.96mph / 1.32mi show
Max 30min	Personal Best3.94mph / 1.97mi show
Max 1hr	Personal Best3.84mph / 3.84mi show
Ave Speed	3.80mph
Calories	313

Fort

Pretty soon he'll be making a fort with that blanket.

Jogging Companion

Hunter has been jogging with me for almost 3 weeks now. We've been using the car seat adapter, but apparently you're not supposed to actually jog with it. So now we're just putting him directly in the stroller. Technically that's not correct either, but Doc. Howie seems to think it's fine. Anyways, he seems to enjoy it quite a bit. I'm hoping he'll be up for running 6 miles tomorrow, my first long run of my training schedule.

xoxo,

Lauren

Tummy Time

Hunter's not a huge fan of tummy time. We have to split it into 2 separate sessions so he gets enough time in. He enjoys it more now that his friends join in on the fun.

Jeans

I'm wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans right now! And they fit! My goal was to be in them by 12 weeks postpartum, needless to say, I'm stoked to be in them at 10 1/2 weeks postpartum. I'm still not quite to my pre-pregnancy weight but perhaps I will hit that at 12 weeks. If not, at least I have some clothes that fit again.

Oh, and I decided I'm going to start training for the LA Marathon in March. 257 days left to go!

Too Hot for Pants

The mercury hit 104 in the valley today! Not cool, literally! Good thing these diapers are cute because it was definitely too hot for pants.

Birth "Control"

I just read this amazing article about who should be in control of childbirth, the mother or the doctor. The author, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, had a terrible labor and delivery of her first child. She received terrible care from her own OB as well as the L&D staff at the hospital. It was so traumatic that she suffered from PTSD because of the ordeal. She went on to research midwifery, holistic birth, and the idea of "taking back your birth" to sort through her feelings as well as prepare for the delivery of her second child.

What really hit home about this article was how similar Taffy's and my birth stories were as well as our ideas on birthing and how negative her experience was and how positive I found my experience to be.

I've already written my birth story, but it was a bit of a blow by blow. I won't go into gory details, but I too was given a c-section after 30 hours of induced labor. The difference between Taffy and I was that I received impeccable care from my fantastic OB, Dr. Kahen, as well as the L&D staff. (Except for one nurse named Freixenet or something, but I complained and she magically had another labor to assist.)

It was not the labor I intended, however. I wanted to go the natural route and be free of intervention. Unfortunately complications arose and intervention was needed. And to tell you the truth, I did feel like I had somehow failed. No part of my labor went according to plan. I knew that I couldn't have too many expectations because sh*t happens. But I had this perfect labor envisioned and mine didn't even come close.

But as imperfect as it was I was very well cared for. My doctor kept me in the loop on every decision, I felt like I had a bit of a say in what happened to me. And the nurses were incredible and took a real interest in me.

But in my mind, labor was this huge moment that I had been preparing for, this important event. And I got so hung up on imagining this perfect labor and delivery that I forgot what was truly important, I got to have a BABY at the end!

I'm still mourning the labor I didn't have and probably will never get. I constantly think whether or not I could have done something differently. But the important thing is that every morning I wake up to this beautiful smiling face. And I realize that in the grand scheme of things, labor is just a blip.

I LOVE these final lines of Taffy's article:

I have another hope, too. I hope there will be a moment when the noise of the nurses and the doctors and the doula will fall into the background. I will look down at my baby — whether he is handed to me on my belly or from behind a curtain as my body is sewn shut — and I will remember what I've known from the beginning, when I looked down at that plus sign and we were alone together for the first time. Before these questions wrapped around my neck, choking me for answers. I will know that I am his mother and he is my son. And maybe, in that moment, I will be ready to say that the only success and failure is the outcome of the birth, that we are healthy. I hope I mean it.

Naps

Naps are getting few and far between. Hunter woke at 6am and was pretty much up until 2:30pm! Even then it took me close to an hour to get him to sleep for more than 5 minutes. Good thing he's pretty much sleeping through the night. I do stress pretty much, because he was up once last night, and I know this could change at any minute. It is fun having him more active and playful during the day now. But, selfishly, I relish his daytime naps. Otherwise I'd never get anything done!